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Former US SEC attorney: 'Get out of crypto platforms now'

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Re: Former US SEC attorney: 'Get out of crypto platforms now'

#441

Post by TimJRobinson »

rohith2506 wrote: post #87

I am absolutely baffled by how much negative criticism the whole blockchain industry gets here and I would like to understand the reasoning behind it. Most of the arguments fall into these following buckets concluding to "IT MUST DIE" 1. The whole crypto is a get rich quick scheme with predatory practices everywhere. It's a wild wild west with no sort of regulations. Well, guess what, regulated industry is no differe…

For those that haven't looked at crypto lately and still think there are few uses, take a look at this: https://thevalueprop.io/

Cryptocurrency is a bad term, they actually make for terrible currencies, but many think they only have value when you can buy coffee with them because of the name.

What they are good at is making finance, ownership, and coordination, especially internationally, much more efficient. Which is far more niche and why the actual usage is rarely covered in mainstream media.

Re: Former US SEC attorney: 'Get out of crypto platforms now'

#442

Post by knocte »

Seattle3503 wrote: post #352
chromatin wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Partially disagree: the Lightning Network [1] facilitates almost instantaneous micro and small transactions which can later settle in aggregate to the Bitcoin base layer. I've used this to purchase goods both online and in person seamlessly. Custodial solutions (trust another party to hold your funds, like a bank) are turnkey. Right now the truly non-custodial solutions (i.e., run your own lightning node) are definit…

What do you buy with the lighting network? I've always wanted to try it.

I pay for flights&hotels in travala.com using lightning. I also refill my phone credit or buy gift cards (e.g. for Uber and whatnot) on BitRefill.com. And I buy cheap stuff in Amazon thanks to Purse.io

Re: Former US SEC attorney: 'Get out of crypto platforms now'

#443

Post by csomar »

mplanchard wrote: post #341
nwiswell wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That being said, I doubt Bitcoin will be outlawed in the West, and generally agree that it will be around for the long term. Well, not entirely without precedent, since private ownership of gold was outlawed nationwide in the US during the Great Depression. It wasn't fully legalized until 1974. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102

This is an entirely new fact for me. It’s surprising to me that I’d never heard of this. Thanks for sharing!

That's why history repeats. Most people have no idea what happened a 100 years ago.

Re: Former US SEC attorney: 'Get out of crypto platforms now'

#444

Post by marcusb »

cs702 wrote: post #102
otoburb wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> If this sounds far-fetched, consider that many smart and smart-sounding people have predicted Bitcoin's demise, and so far all have been utterly wrong Bernie Madoff pulled off one of the largest (literal Ponzi) scams and evidently stated that he started in the 1990s for a run of just over 15 years until being arrested in 2008, although some investigators thought that his fraudulent activities started as far back a…

The comparison to Madoff is not apt. Madoff hid losses by committing accounting fraud, whereas every single transaction in the Bitcoin network is visible to everyone and, moreover, cryptographically verifiable by everyone. As long as the distributed consensus algorithm continues to function, Bitcoin will continue to exist. Period. (Government regulations cannot kill it; they can only drive it underground, as with gol…

> Anyone who predicts Bitcoin's demise must explain precisely how and why its network would stop functioning.

No, they don’t. There are a variety of scenarios that do not require the government to eliminate the ecosystem.

For starters, they could make if very, very difficult to use for large capital purchases (houses, cars, etc.)

They could impose fines on businesses for accepting crypto — or specific types of crypto — as payment for goods and services.

Can they completely eliminate your ability to trade a bitcoin with your friend? No, of course not, any more than the federal government retrieved every ounce of gold back when that was illegal. But they can make it so painful to use that most people simply won’t.

Re: Former US SEC attorney: 'Get out of crypto platforms now'

#445

Post by boring_twenties »

this_user wrote: post #131
bulbosaur123 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what most people got wrong. Crypto solves one problem and one problem only: censorship. Crypto is the only, single censorship resistant asset on the entire earth. You can't remove private key by force ($5 wrench is not an argument). You can confiscate land, stocks, freeze bank accounts, take gold. You can't extract a string of numbers which you aren't even sure is there in the first place. Not yet at least. M…

> Crypto solves one problem and one problem only: censorship It doesn't even do that properly, because there is no guarantee of service given by the system. Miners could just decide that they don't like you very much and refuse to process your TX. Or they could conspire to blackmail you: "pay us or your tokens are useless". Sure, someone might be willing to process your TX, or you could try to do it yourself, but tha…

There was no backdoor involved in the DAO Ethereum rollback, it was done by network consensus

Re: Former US SEC attorney: 'Get out of crypto platforms now'

#446

Post by steveBK123 »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #424
steveBK123 wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly To paraphrase a quote attributed to Stalin - how many divisions does Satoshi have?

But then you have to explain why gift cards are worth something. The answer is, because someone will give you something for them. Meanwhile there are a large number of entities that have already entered into long-term contracts denominated in cryptocurrencies and any of them would pay you something for it when they need to satisfy their obligations. That doesn't mean the value never changes, but that's also true of g…

Do gift cards go up & down 50% in a year and have large transaction costs?

Re: Former US SEC attorney: 'Get out of crypto platforms now'

#447

Post by steveBK123 »

anonporridge wrote: post #379
steveBK123 wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could understand the allure of the (ahem) "stability" of BTC if you lived in say, Argentina. If you live in America with this viewpoint, its pure doomerism.

Someone with your mindset was probably saying something similar while living in Argentina in the 1920s, when it was among the top 10 wealthiest countries on the planet.

When did Argentina have the worlds reserve currency and nearly a century of economic dominance?

Re: Former US SEC attorney: 'Get out of crypto platforms now'

#448

Post by spiralx »

XorNot wrote: post #406
mminer237 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the last 5 fives, gold's highest price was 60% higher than its lowest point. That is indeed pretty volatile. Let's see if Bitcoin is comparably volatile… Oh, it's highest point was only 1920% higher than its lowest point. That's definitely the exact same as gold. /s Also, that ignores that gold has been a store of value for millennia. It's almost synonymous with wealth. In a total financial collapse, if all modern…

Gold has a perception of wealth but history makes clear what it actually is. For example, the hordes of gold the Spanish plundered from the Americas directly contributed to the bankruptcy of the monarchy.[1] Because they hadn't actually seized/mined "wealth" - they'd simply inflated their currency away without any commensurate expansion in productivity. People who believe that it would be "easy" to trade gold for oth…

Even better, the influx of gold from the New World was preceded by the period called the Great Bullion Famine where Europe-wide shortages of silver and gold led to long periods of deflation across the continent!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Bullion_Famine

Re: Former US SEC attorney: 'Get out of crypto platforms now'

#449

Post by charlieyu1 »

paxys wrote: post #201
charlieyu1 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still, exchanges exist because there is a large demand of customers converting between fiat and crypto, also probably reduce transcation fee and time to be low enough to allow trading derivative products. Not perfect but probably a necessary evil.

The demand for simply converting from fiat to crypto to hold or spend it does exist, but is probably negligible compared to wanting to do the equivalent of investing or day trading.

And how is that a bad thing?

Re: Former US SEC attorney: 'Get out of crypto platforms now'

#450

Post by martin8412 »

koonsolo wrote: post #440
toomuchtodo wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blockchains are unnecessary in a world with trusted entities and functional legal frameworks. In places that require a blockchain, you're still going to be at the whim of whomever has a monopoly on force. Sure, your key passphrase may be in your head. You'll end up getting beat with a rubber hose. It was never your crypto so long as someone has the guns (wrt "Not your keys, not your crypto"). https://xkcd.com/538/ >…

> Blockchains are unnecessary in a world with trusted entities and functional legal frameworks. This is such bullshit. In practice the banking system is a messed up piece of old crap. Let me illustrate my point from my experience a few weeks ago: Had to transfer 20 euro's from my account to my sons account, same European bank. In fact, my sons account is also under my supervision. It was on a Saturday, so guess what:…

That sounds like a problem with your bank, or you don't know how to do the transfer correctly.

I can transfer euros from my bank to a bank in a different EU country within seconds at no cost around the clock all days of the year.

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